The Association of Advancement Services Professional Aug. 4th, at UC Davis!

Hot Topics Agenda

8:00 am - 9:00 am
Registration, Breakfast and Networking
Spend this introductory time reconnecting with old friends and making new friends.
Stop by the registration desk for your workshop materials and get started on an informal and voluntary assignment: Systems Inventory worksheet or Disaster Recovery Plan

9:00 am - 9:15 am
Welcome/Introductions
Welcome to UC Davis – Isabella Corbin, Executive Director, Administrative Services, UC Davis
Karen Latora – Hot Topics Coordinator
Director of Advancement Services, UC Davis

We will kick off our Hot Topics Sessions with an introduction of the Faculty, general workshop notes and the sharing of the results from our voluntary introductory assignment - Systems Inventory worksheet or Disaster Recovery Plan

9:30 am – 11:00 am
Data Warehouse Strategies
Brian W. Dowling, CGA, MBA
Senior Vice President for Finance and Information Systems
VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation
Principal and Founder, SupportingAdvancement.Com

Brian Dowling will be participating from Vancouver – via Readytalk and will will focus on tips and tricks for building a data warehouse to support your fundraising operations. We’ll cover broad concepts and additionally drill down into some more granular techniques to help you get up and running quickly.

11:10 am– 12:10 pm
Campaign Reporting - Kai Kamrath, Columbia University
CASE Management Reporting Strategies – moving into a Comprehensive Campaign. When all your standard reports go out the window, untangle the mystic and learn how to train your staff on the various methods of reporting.

12:15 pm – 1:30pm
Vendor Roundtables – Discuss Hot Topics with our Sponsors
ClearWater Technical Group
BCI, Business Credit Information Inc.

1:30pm – 2:30 pm
Beware of the Hype - Chris Merry, ClearWater Technical Group
When evaluating new technology, don’t let the hype influence business decisions
• Text donations
• Business Intelligence
• Dash boards

2:30 – 2:45 pm
Afternoon Break – Mix and Mingle

2:45 pm – 3:45 pm
What Management Needs and Wants from Advancement Services
Robert Weiner, President, Robert L. Weiner Consulting
Explore strategies to make sure your work in advancement services meets the expectations of your immediate management team while providing all the information the team truly needs. Do they know what they really need? Are the expectations and needs always the same? If not, can you reconcile the two? Explore beyond reporting how to be the invaluable team member to your leadership.

3:45 pm – 4:30 pm
Social Media - The Implications of Social Media Information for Fundraising and Prospect Research, Nancy Benavente
This session will explore the use of social networks in leveraging communication, data and technology to increase the outreach and impact of our fundraising efforts. Strategy development for acquiring data on constituents via social networks will be discussed along with the integration of data collection and analysis efforts.

4:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Hot Topics - Challenge the Faculty
Feel like you have a problem unlike anyone else? Looking for the best practice in your own special situation? Have a question on management style, employee motivation or evaluation or another Advancement Services issue not yet addressed? With more than a '100' years of experience on the panel - the goal is to deliver solutions to you that work!

5:00 pm - 5:15 pm
Closing and Thanks!
Please join us for this farewell look to the future for a brief brainstorming exchange on your professional development interests to best serve your needs - and your employers - in Advancement.

SunGard, Advance, AWA, and Advance Web Access are registered trademarks of SunGard Data Systems, Inc.

Here is a look at Snake River Adventures!

During your AWA Training, you will have the opportunity to travel up the Snake River on a half day tour.  This is an exciting event that seperates our training from any other AWA training out there.  Here is a video of the full day tour which is a little different from what our clients can expect, but it does give you an idea of some of the fun times we offer!



Our training curriculum also includes the following classes:

-Introduction to Oracle for Sybase Developers
-Introduction to SQL and PL/SQL
-Advanced SQL Techniques
-SQL and PL/SQL Strategies

Dates of these training to be announced.
SunGard, Advance, AWA, and Advance Web Access are registered trademarks of SunGard Data Systems, Inc.

WE ARE OFFERING TRAINING IN ADVANCE WEB THIS SUMMER!

Download our Training Brochure!

This will probably be the most fun and excitement your employees have ever had while attending training.  Not only will they come away with great knowledge and skills in AWA, but they will have felt the appreciation for their efforts for all their hard work they put into their jobs everyday. 

SunGard, Advance, AWA, and Advance Web Access are registered trademarks of SunGard Data Systems, Inc.

Promotion Continues on Crystal Reports

We are extending our sales promotion of SAP Business Objects reporting software.  We will continue to pass on WHOLESALE pricing on Crystal Reports Server 2008, Crystal Reports 2008 Desktop, Visual Advantage, and Xcelsius Engage until September 1, 2010.  Please call our sales department so we can setup a quote for you and your organization on these premeire Business Intelligence software applications.  Click on the link below to get your free trial of Crystal Reports.  Then contact us for the best pricing on SAP Business Objects software applications.

free trial




SunGard, Advance, AWA, and Advance Web Access are registered trademarks of SunGard Data Systems, Inc.

We Have Partnered with SAP Business Objects

We are now partners with SAP Business Objects and resellers of Crystal Reports. For a limited time we will be offering WHOLESALE pricing on Crystal Reports. Please call us for more details on this great opportunity to save thousands while fulfilling your needs for an advanced reporting tool like Crystal Reports. This includes Crystal Reports Server 2008, Crystal Reports 2008 desktop, Crystal Reports 2008 Visual Advantage, and Xcelsius Engage. All of these tools are available at wholesale pricing to allow you to make dynamic reports and dashboarding for spectacular displaying and presentation of your reporting for a great end user experience. This offer ends March 31, 2010 so give us a call right away to receive this great discount at 888-347-7477 ext 501 or email info@clearwatertg.com

SunGard, Advance, AWA, and Advance Web Access are registered trademarks of SunGard Data Systems, Inc.

Adding Dynamic Prompts to AWA Reports

If you were hoping to incorporate your existing PowerBuilder prompting logic in AWA reports, you may surprised to learn that AWA does not directly allow such features. According to the Advance Web Reporting User's Guide:

"If your DW Prompt had conditional/dynamic prompt inputs (e.g., multiple ‘School’ drop-downs that appear once the previous school is chosen), an Advance Web Prompt Form will not support conditional display – all form controls will display. This may require the text instructions you include on a prompt form to be redesigned."

However, thanks to the incorporation of the Label control type, prompts can be made more dynamic using a combination of HTML, Cascading Style Sheets, and JavaScript.

Due to privacy restrictions, we are not allowed to provide specific details as to how to create such a dynamic prompt form; however, the following example provides general information to help you get started. If you have direct questions, send us an email.

Example

In this simple example, a web form prompts the user for optional range of years. If the user specifies "Text" from the select list, two text boxes appear. A more sophisticated interface could be created by incorporating Ajax to populate controls.

HTML

Define the HTML controls using a Label control in the AWA configuration utility. In general terms, any form element with a name prefixed with "report." is passed to the PL/SQL stored procedure as a parameter. This example uses "hidden" controls. Values are assigned to the hidden fields using JavaScript.

<input type="hidden" name="report.p_begin_year" id="report.p_begin_year" />
<input type="hidden" name="report.p_end_year" id="report.p_end_year" />

<table>
<tr>
<td><b>Select your controls: </b></td>
<td>
<select name="controlType" id="controlType" onChange="showHide();">
<option value="N" selected="true">None</option>
<option value="T">Text Boxes</option>
<option value="S">Select List</option>
</select>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<div id="textBoxes">
<b>Begin Year: </b><input name="beginText" id="beginText" size="4" maxlength="4" onChange="setValue();" /><br />
<b>Begin Year: </b><input name="endText" id="endText" size="4" maxlength="4" onChange="setValue();" />
</div>

<div id="selectList">
Select list coming soon
</div>
</td>
</tr>
</table>

Cascading Style Sheets

In this example, CSS was used to hide a set of text boxes until the appropriate option (Text) is selected by the user.

<style> type="text/css">
#textBoxes { display: none; }
#selectList { display: none; }
</style>

JavaScript

The following JavaScript code is an example of hiding and displaying form controls, as well as setting the value of the hidden fields that will be passing parameter values to the stored procedure.

<script> type="text/javascript">
function showHide() {
// The value of the select list determines what is visible
var sel = document.getElementById("controlType");

// Elements with a name prefixed with "report" are passed to the PL/SQL
// procedure as a parameter
document.getElementById("report.p_begin_year").value = "";
document.getElementById("report.p_end_year").value = "";
document.getElementById("beginText").value = "";
document.getElementById("endText").value = "";

if (sel[sel.selectedIndex].value == "T") {
document.getElementById("textBoxes").style.display = "block";
document.getElementById("selectList").style.display = "none";
} else if (sel[sel.selectedIndex].value == "S") {
document.getElementById("selectList").style.display = "block";
document.getElementById("textBoxes").style.display = "none";
} else {
document.getElementById("selectList").style.display = "none";
document.getElementById("textBoxes").style.display = "none";
}
}

function setValue() {
var sel = document.getElementById("controlType");

if (sel[sel.selectedIndex].value == "T") {
document.getElementById("report.p_begin_year").value = document.getElementById("beginText").value;
document.getElementById("report.p_end_year").value = document.getElementById("endText").value;
} else if (sel[sel.selectedIndex].value == "S") {
alert("Set using select list");
}
}
</script>

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SunGard, Advance, AWA, and Advance Web Access are registered trademarks of SunGard Data Systems, Inc.

Limited AWA Documentation

As a consultant with Clearwater Technical Group, LLC, I have been providing assistance to a number of universities as they migrate to Advance Web Access (a product developed by SunGard Data Systems, Inc).  Initially, I was pleasantly surprised to find out how well SunGard's documentation described the AWA application and environment; however, there are critical bits of information that have been omitted from these guides.  That is the purpose of this blog.  As I continue to assist schools, UCLA in particular, in migrating several custom PowerBuilder applications to fit within the AWA framework, I have begun documenting techniques, settings, and procedures encountered during this project.  My intent is to pass along these findings through this medium.  Your comments on this topic are always appreciated, and feel free to contact myself or any member of the CTG team if you have questions regarding our posts.

Thank you,

Christopher Merry
Principle Consultant
Clearwater Technical Group, LLC
(888) 347-7477 x502

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SunGard, Advance, AWA, and Advance Web Access are registered trademarks of SunGard Data Systems, Inc.